EDITORIAL: Give public its say on CFL team

Hamilton Tiger-Cats linebacker Marc Beswick leads his team onto the field at the 2013 Grey Cup in Regina. With an estimated price tag of $200 million for a CFL-level stadium in Halifax, the public should have their say before any decisions are made. (FRANK GUNN / CP)

Either Dartmouth Crossing or Bayers Lake would be the likely new home for the team, the brainchild of a trio of deep-pocketed former sports executives calling their company Maritime Football Ltd.

The likeliest scenario is for something to be more than just a stadium the CFL team would use for nine or 10 home games per year. A development surrounding the stadium could include commercial, residential or exhibition space. Proponents point to Ottawa, which built something similar to attract a CFL team in 2014.

A Halifax stadium would seat around 25,000 and is estimated to cost at least $200 million.

Will Haligonians turn out to cheer a CFL team? Maybe.

But the real issue is how much money taxpayers are willing to contribute. There are too many examples of cities being bamboozled by proponents of sports facilities who then leave local governments holding the financial bag.

A proposal from team owners willing to take most of the risk, and which offers the city some prospect of tax revenue to offset initial costs, might convince enough skeptics to tip the balance.

There’s a recent example that backers and opponents of a potential team could both point to: The Nova Centre.

That $500-million project included a convention centre partially funded by three levels of government, to the tune of about $150 million. Construction of the project, which also included a hotel and an office building, snarled traffic and damaged nearby businesses, and critics attacked the convention centre as too expensive and unnecessary.

But it also appeared to spark billions of dollars in development in Halifax’s downtown, which had become stagnant and run-down.

A stadium project could follow a similar path, with public and private funding and including other elements like concert facilities and commercial space. It would spark a similar development debate to the one that surrounded the Nova Centre.

It’s time the city sponsored a public debate, revealed the specific sites under consideration, spoke a lot more openly about what it’s being asked to do and entertained questions from taxpayers about just how much this will cost.